1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector to be mounted in a case of a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,572,150 discloses a device connector for connecting a wire-side connector mounted on an end of a wire extending from a power supply with a device such as a motor housed in a metal case in an electric vehicle. This device connector includes a housing made of synthetic resin and formed by insert molding using terminal fittings as inserts. The housing is mounted in an aluminum die-cast shell. The device connector is mounted in a device by bolt-fastening mount pieces provided on the die-cast shell.
The aluminum die-cast shell of the conventional device connector is strong but costly. Studies in recent years have tried to develop a sufficiently strong cost efficient device connector by molding a resin housing with a metal reinforcing plate as an insert. However, the synthetic resin shrinks more than the reinforcing plate in a cooling process after insert molding due to differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion of the synthetic resin and the metal reinforcing plate. Thus, the synthetic resin covering an outer peripheral edge of the reinforcing plate is pulled by the synthetic resin covering the opposite surfaces of the reinforcing plate. The synthetic resin covering the reinforcing plate is likely to be caught by a corner of the peripheral edge of the reinforcing plate and cracked with this caught part as a starting point.
The cracked synthetic resin makes the connector look poor and creates a clearance due to a reduction in adhesion of interfaces of the reinforcing plate and the synthetic resin, and water might enter the connector through this clearance.
In view of the above, it has been considered impractical to mold large connectors of synthetic resin with a metal reinforcing plate as an insert.
The invention was completed in view of the above and an object of the invention is to provide a cost efficient device connector while preventing a crack from being created.